In an effort to reshape American politics, the Koch brothers have created a secretive operation which conducts surveillance and intelligence gathering on its liberal opponents, Politicoreports.

Otherwise being referred to as "competitive intelligence," their team has a staff of 25 individuals, including one former CIA analyst and is operating out one of the Koch network offices in Arlington, Va.

According to Politico and sources with knowledge of the competitive intelligence team, the operation "has provided network officials with documents detailing confidential voter-mobilization plans by major Democrat-aligned groups," as well as, "sends regular 'intelligence briefing' emails tracking the canvassing, phone-banking and voter-registration efforts of labor unions, environmental groups and their allies."

"We were caught off guard by what the left was doing in 2012, and we'd be foolish to be caught in that position again," Marc Short, the president of Freedom Partners Chamber of Commerce told Politico in defense of the "Koch intelligence agency."

In 2012 the Koch brothers spent $400-million-plus ripping Democratic politicians and their policies, however, President Barack Obama was re-elected, and in addition to that, the Democratic Party maintained the Senate.

Hoping to never see this happen again, the Kochs' believe that keeping tabs on the left in real time will help defeat their well-funded infrastructure.

And, Politico notes that the Kochs' operation isn't the only one focused on "spying" on its opponents.

Liberal activists and groups have tried to expose the work of the Kochs' competitive intelligence team. However, they have concluded that this operation is "unique in its scale and its thoroughly methodological approach."
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